PSC staff: FPL should refund $14 million to customers for 2008 outage

The Public Service Commission staff recommended Wednesday that Florida Power & Light customers be refunded nearly $14 million, including interest, for costs related to the massive 2008 outage.

The PSC plans to vote on the issue June 1. If the staff recommendation is approved, it would amount to a one-time $1.53 credit for customers that use 1,000 kilowatts hours or 14 cents a month if it's spread out over a full year.

About 950,000 Florida homes and businesses - including 596,000 FPL customers - lost power on Feb. 26, 2008.

FPL officials have agreed to credit $2 million for replacement power costs after the first eight hours of the outage. But they say the company should not be responsible for the time two nuclear generators were down: 158 hours and 107 hours.

The Office of Public Counsel, the state's advocate for utility customers, disagrees saying the full $15.9 million should be refunded to customers because they had no control over the outage.

PSC staffers say FPL should pay for the bulk of the costs, including those accrued when the nuclear plant was down. But they said FPL should be able to charge customers for costs during 27 hours when the utilty was making "essential repairs" to one of the nuclear generators.

In 2008, the commission ordered FPL to refund customers $6 million for a 2006 outage blamed on a utility contractor.